Week 52- 9/26/16 BOOM HALF WAY

You heard it here folks, this Elder only has about 12 months until he comes home. Y'all better get ready because if the second half of my mission is any faster than the first, I'll show up at the door without you knowing. 

So this week was literally the wettest week of my mission. I know I've probably said that a few times but let me get one thing clear. 

You can always get wetter. 

The typhoon started Sunday night, and didn't stop until Sunday morning the next week. I forgot what it was like to experience rain not hitting my face 24/7. And in the words of the great Forest Gump "it even rained up" because the treads on my bike tires throw water at my face, especially going really fast downhill. This week was still good. We started a Book of Mormon study class and literally all of our progressing investigators came. It was a huge success. On my half way day we went out to the high end katsu shop near the church. I had pork katsu, with cheese melted in it. Absolute bliss. Then it rained harder. I actually figured out how much time it takes for my shoes to get dry using a blow drier. 

Probably the biggest miracle of this week was our investigator Shiga. Usually he doesn't read, or pray, or come to church. Really we didn't know why he was meeting with us. But this week, he told us he read all of 1 Nephi, and offered to give the closing prayer. The reason is because somebody he knows died recently and because he's a 70 year old man, and in his words "もうすぐそろそろかな" which is "I'll probably be going soon" he has been thinking a lot about death and what will happen to him. Tons of progress!

Finally I just wanted to end with a little something I learned about commandments. The rules and guidelines God gave us are of course for our protection, but why do they have to be those commandments? Well the answer is simple. Those commandments aren't just rules God chose to hinder or restrict, but because they are eternal laws. There is only one path to eternal life, b if that path is just chosen and changed, then there's no point in having E path. That is why God doesn't change. Principles of righteousness are eternal, unchanging and thereby governed by an eternal, unchanging God. 

I'm excited for the next year on my mission. I'm a little scared because my time is actually ticking away now. I've reached the hill and climbed it. From the words of my father, and his father "what comes up, must come down." I'm ready for all the experiences! Thank you for tuning in this week. Enjoy the pics and such!

 末日生徒

イエス・キリスト

          教会

 

 ping-ponging

 hanging with Masaki

 hanging with Masaki

you don't know what you've got till its gone

Week 51- 9/19/16 Abiko Is All Hills

Hey everybody it's Elder Moore coming at you straight from the streets

of Abiko. This has been one long week what with transfers and all but

let's get started.

Monday and Tuesday were spent visiting members. All of them were

surprised I was out of here. As was I. I'd say it was sad but I didn't

really get to know anybody. I'm back in the city kind of. Abiko is

like half city and half rural. It's great though because I'm close

enough to Tokyo to have the Tokyo influence but far enough away as to

have some space. I love my new area. My companion also reminds me of Bryce Erbe so we get along great. Today we decided to start growing food so we can

spend less on groceries. We're growing beans and peppers. We bond

through gardening. Our apartment here is really small though.

Wednesday was transfer day. This crazy guy followed me for like two

hours while transferring. He kept trying to get me to take different

trains and go to other places with him. He was getting kind of creepy

but eventually he left so I got to Abiko safely. I realize the sun

never shines here. That's not a bad thing though because the one hour

it did it was hot.

Thursday we met with our investigator who will be baptized in a month

named Hiroki. We played some basketball and he invited a friend. The

friend had no interest but while we were playing some random kid

showed and started to watch us play. We invited him in and at first he

was super awkward. We could drive and blow right through him. However,

he learned fast. I've never seen anybody so good. Nobody could Garuda

him. He could sink a three from anywhere on the court. He could even

jump and hang off the rim. He was about as tall as me! He went from

not good at all to "why isn't he in the NBA? " status.

Thursday and Friday we had a bunch of meetings and visited members. We

went to the biggest LDS church in Japan for zone meeting. It has 5

stories and looks like a castle straight from a fantasy book. It was

beautiful. To be honest I don't remember what we did on Saturday. I

know we had a meeting and talked with a recent convert. It was good

though. We tag team teach and play with his cat.

Sunday was church. Today (Monday) we went to Costco. It's been so long

since good pizza. We also walked around a bit. It was so crowded.

Literally just hundreds of Japanese people looking at American things

and freaking out by how they come in bulk. Like cmon this is Costco

that's how we do. 

We have Elder Bednar coming to speak to us on October 14th so we're pretty excited for that. This will be my second apostle as a missionary. And as far as the language, I just need to learn words. I know enough grammar structure to be fluent, and everybody in my area thinks I'm fluent. They even mistook me for half Japanese at first.

Unfortunately I don't have ,many pictures so I hope y'all have a good week!

Costco

Week 50- 9/12/16 Unexpected News

Yes it's me. I'm sure you are all very anxious to hear about this

transfer calls outcome, but of course I'm going to make you all wait.

It gives a little incentive to read the whole thing. Also pictures.

This week was quite the busy one. It was like the first time since

week one where we stayed in our area for the most of the week. I'll

skip to Tuesday since that's the day we actually did stuff.

We met with our investigate Negishi! He's a referral from the bishop

and is one of the nicest old men ever. He has a ton of potential. We

went over for lunch and had intentions to talk about the Book of

Mormon, but his wife who doesn't like us too much came home (story of

my entire mission) and things got awkward. We just sat around and

drank prune juice. But all is well because we set up a different time!

On Wednesday we had intentions to bike to the mountain and cut grass

but a typhoon came and ruined that, so we went to a less active store

and hey gave us lunch as well. We then taught Eikaiwa. Thursday was

district meeting so we went down to Oizumi and ate some good Brazilian

food. I ate this massive burger. My stomach has shrunk but when it

comes to burgers, I still got it. We also taught our investigator

Shuma, who is progressing well towards his baptismal date on the 2nd

of October!

On Friday we went on splits with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder

Newey. He worked in Urayasu and left before I got there so we had a

lot to talk about. He's a pretty good missionary and I learned a lot.

We visited the old folks home and I got called "handsome and cool" a

ton. The first counselor in the bishopric mentioned that I play bass

and now the care takers want me to play a rock show for all the old

people. I'll see if I can get permission for that. After splits we

visited some less actives who gave me a whole 1.5 liter bottle of

coca-cola and we biked through a mountain to visit a member who

complains that nobody visits. I know why now. It's freaking far.

On Saturday we went to the same market as we did on Wednesday and

helped sell stuff. I got called handsome again and bagged a ton of sea

weed. The mother of the family is less active because she lives far

and her husband is in the hospital but she loves us. Her son and his

family have gotten to love us too, and I won't be surprised if they

started taking the lessons. Things are going well in Kiryu.

It was supposed to rain really bad for the past 3 days but it's missed

us so far. Typhoons are literally the worst. To be honest I'm making

this email pretty long so you have to keep reading. I actually don't

know what's going on because we haven't received calls, but the zone

leaders called and told us one of us is transferring for sure.

And finally, the news you've ALL been waiting for...........

We got an oddball thrown at us. After spending one transfer in Kiryu

I'm transferring AGAIN to Abiko. It's an area a little closer to the

big city so I'm pretty excited. It's also not a huge area, which

another thing I'm excited about. My new companion is named Elder

Swenson and he's one transfer ahead of me.

Well that's it folks. Have a good week! Next time you here from me

it'll be from Abiko!

Kiryu zone conference

the new bike

the kids we teach English to

lunch at Stamina with the ZLs and our investigator

Kiryu Zone

Week 49- 8/5/2016 The One With A New Bike

Well hello hello everybody. Welcome to another busy week in the life

of Elder Moore. We seem to be busy every week here. We spent most of

our time outside the area.

Monday was spent preparing and emailing all you folks. We then went to

Kumagaya for splits. Oh and my bike broke on Monday, so for the entire

exchange I got to ride a mama-chari. It was pretty embarrassing. We

ate a ton at yakiniku and went on our way. Luckily we haven't had any

typhoons this week. There was supposed to be a really big one on

Monday but it missed us. We got back from splits on Wednesday and

spent the remainder of the day teaching Eikaiwa.

Thursday was also spent out of our area. This time we went to Oizumi,

a place in the mission nicknamed "little Brazil" for the amount of

Brazilians living in the area. After our district meeting we went put

to eat at a Brazilian sandwich shop. It was pretty good.

Friday was our first full day in the area. We started our day by going

to the bike shop only to find out my bike wasn't ready and I had to

wait another day. By this point I've walked a ton because nothing in

our area is within walking distance. The bishop let us borrow a bike,

but it turned out to be a girls child bike. That was even more

embarrassing than my escapade on Tuesday. Saturday we got the new bike

and it is amazing. That's pretty much it for the week. We walked a

ton. This week is the last week of the transfer. I'll let you all know how that is next Monday! Enjoy your week!

a hat I found in he Kumagaya apartment

the sick rainbow we saw on splits